Greece’s Culture Ministry and the Arcadia Antiquities Ephorate announced that the Tegea Archaeological Museum has been nominated as a candidate for the European Museum of the Year Award (EMYA) in 2016.

The museum was included in a list of candidates posted on the website of the European Museum Forum, which organises the competition, after a meeting of the judges’ committee in Zagreb.

EMYA established in 1977 under the auspices of the Council of Europe and is awarded annually aiming to encourage the best practices and innovative actions by museums in Europe.

In the centre of the Peloponnese

The Tegea Museum’s dossier was put together in the spring of 2015 and submitted to the organization with the support of the Stasinopoulos-Viohalco Public Benefit Foundation.

The museum is located in the traditional settlement of Alea in Tripoli, in the centre of the Peloponnese and was one of the first public museums of the independent Greek state which was founded in 1907. It has recently been extensively refurbished, with improvements to both the building and the exhibition, using EU funds and reopened in 2014.

The winning museum will be announced at a ceremony to be held from April 6-9 at Tolosa and San Sebastian in Spain.